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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Reese's Dark Peanut Butter Cups

Hershey has expanded the Reese's line by adding the Dark Chocolate cups to the lineup.

The Dark Chocolate cups aren't an entirely new product; they were released last year in bat shapes to tie in with "The Dark Knight." While I thought the bat shape was cute, these are in the classic cup shape. And though you can't really see it in the pictures, the chocolate is surprisingly glossy.

The first thing I noticed is that since the dark chocolate is, of course, less sweet than the standard issue milk chocolate (or the abominable mockolate Hershey's is using more and more of), the peanut butter really stands out. The roasted, salty quality of the nuts shines in a way that the Reese's cups don't usually showcase. The texture is the classic crumbly, grainy texture that I love so much.

The chocolate is interesting. It's not exactly a deep dark chocolate. It reminds me more of Toll House Morsels -- a big, bad-assed muscled-up dark chocolate cousin that probably has a mullet and loves the Squidbillies. (Wait, I love the Squidbillies... And I have been eyeing Kate's hairdo...) It's a little woodsy, but mostly it reminded me of old coffee. There is not much in the way of sweetness, but the salty hit of the peanut butter balances it out. On its own it wouldn't be very good, but together it's tasty.

The texture is soft, so if you like to break your cups up, do not expect a clean break. The melt is smooth, but not exactly creamy. Again, without the peanut butter, this would be pretty forgettable.

I would be interested to see how the smaller mini-cups compare. In this size, even as much as I liked how the peanut butter was enhanced by the dark chocolate, I still prefer the Milk Chocolate version.

Just found them in NC -- was very excited about them BEFORE trying; now just disappointed. The peanut butter center was DRY; the dark chocolate waxy-tasting...This is my first commercial candy bar in years, though, so maybe they all taste different these days....